Trading methods have evolved from an exclusively manual process to a technology enabled, electronic platform. With the advent of electronic trading, a user or trader can be in virtually direct contact with the market, from practically anywhere in the world, performing near real-time transactions, and without the need to make personal contact with a broker.
In particular, traders are connected to an exchange's electronic trading platform by way of a communication link and through an application program interface to facilitate real-time electronic messaging between themselves and the exchange. The electronic trading platform includes at least one electronic market, which is the heart of the trading system for a particular tradeable object and handles matching of bids and offers placed by the subscribing traders for that tradeable object. The electronic messaging includes market information that is sent from the electronic exchange to the traders. Once the traders receive market information, it may be displayed to them on their trading screens. Upon viewing the information, traders can take certain actions, including the actions of sending buy or sell orders to the electronic exchange, adjusting existing orders, deleting orders, or otherwise managing orders. Traders may also use software tools on their client devices to automate these and additional actions.
Just as with an open-outcry exchange, an electronic exchange can list any number of tradeable objects. Often times, traders will trade simultaneously more than one tradeable object, and they may trade simultaneously tradeable objects that are listed at more than one exchange. As used herein, the term “tradeable object” refers to anything that can be traded with a quantity and/or price. It includes, but is not limited to, all types of traded events, goods and/or financial products, which can include, for example, stocks, options, bonds, futures, currency, and warrants, as well as funds, derivatives and collections of the foregoing, and all types of commodities, such as grains, energy, and metals. The tradeable object may be “real,” such as products that are listed by an exchange for trading, or “synthetic,” such as a combination of real products that is created by the user. A tradeable object could actually be a combination of other tradeable objects, such as a class of tradeable objects.
Ordinarily, each tradeable object has its own independent electronic market, and therefore, its own separate stream of market data, commonly referred to as a data feed. A data feed includes market information corresponding to a tradeable object, and the content of the data feed typically depends on the host exchange and on the tradeable object. Market information in a data feed commonly includes information related to the inside market and market depth. The inside market represents the lowest sell price (also referred to as the best or lowest ask price), and the highest buy price (also, referred to as the best or highest bid price). Then, market depth includes quantities available for trading the tradeable object at certain buy and sell price levels away from the inside market. The extent of market depth available for a trader usually depends on the exchange. For example, some exchanges provide market depth for an infinite number of price levels, while some provide only quantities associated with the inside market, and others may provide no market depth at all. Additionally, exchanges can offer other types of market information in the data feeds, such as the last traded price (LTP), the last traded quantity (LTQ), and order fill information.
Since each tradeable object is actually associated with its own separate stream of market information, in the instances when a trader trades more than one tradeable object, the trader will receive more than one data feed. In addition to receiving market information from exchanges, traders might subscribe to news feeds, real-time quotation vendors that provide information to traders for decision support, and other information sources.
Using client devices, such as a personal computer, laptop computer, hand-held computer, or other devices that have network access, a trader can link to host exchanges through one or more networks. A network is a group of two or more computers or devices linked together, and characterized by topology, protocol, and architecture. For example, some traders may link to the host through a direct network connection, such as a T1 or ISDN. Others may link to the host exchange through direct network connections, and through other common network components, such as high speed servers, routers, and gateways. The Internet, a well-known collection of networks and gateways, can be used to establish a connection between the client device and the host exchange. There are many different types of wired and wireless networks and combinations of network types known in the art that can link traders to the host exchange.
Many, if not all, networks being used by electronic exchanges have limited bandwidth capacity. Since adding network bandwidth is very expensive, many existing exchanges already limit the extent of market data being provided to their clients. Also, as the trading applications become more and more sophisticated, traders may wish to receive more content rich market data. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a trading system that can meet current and future bandwidth needs.